Deveny, Eagles can't pull off the upset
HARTFORD -- The Boston College women's basketball team could start to smell a victory yesterday when it rallied from an 8-point deficit to tie Connecticut with less than four minutes to play in the first half. The Eagles probably could taste it in the second half when Clare Droesch sank a 3-pointer to give BC a 45-44 lead with 12:34 to play.
But even though BC stayed close to No. 4 UConn (12-2, 3-1 Big East), the Eagles would never lead again.
UConn sophomore forward Ann Strother sealed the Eagles' fate with 1:37 to play. Her 3-pointer put the Huskies ahead, 64-59, and they went on to defeat the Eagles, 69-61, at the Hartford Civic Center.
Even though the 22d-ranked Eagles (12-3, 2-2) knew they'd be coming into a hostile environment, facing the defending national champions before a sellout crowd of 16,294, the Huskies had recently appeared vulnerable. UConn lost to Duke here two weeks ago, snapping a 69-game home winning streak, then fell to unranked Notre Dame last Tuesday.
"We didn't enter the game with any different game plan," said BC coach Cathy Inglese. "We knew they might be down, and we knew they were vulnerable, but they may want to get out there and just whack us."
But UConn didn't look like it would be whacking anyone in the first half. The Huskies stepped out to a 7-4 lead but then BC's Jessalyn Deveny, who had a game-high 20 points, hit a jumper to bring the Eagles within 1. UConn went on an 8-0 run, but BC would hack away and eventually tie the score at 21 with 3:58 left and close the half down, 27-24.
The Huskies shot slightly worse than the Eagles from the floor in the first half (37 percent to 37.5 percent) and pulled down just one more rebound (17) than BC. But the Eagles turned the ball over 11 times.
Deveny opened the second half with a 3-pointer to tie the score, and the game would continue to be a series of UConn spurts, with BC then chipping away.
"We just wanted to stay close and by the end maybe pull it out," Deveny said.
Freshman forward Kathrin Ress, who scored 9 of her 13 points in the second half, capped a 9-0 run by the Eagles with a jumper and layup to give BC a 42-39 lead with 14 minutes to play. UConn would surge back ahead, though, and Strother's shot from behind the arc gave the Huskies a 64-59 lead.
UConn made five free throws to finish the game, while Brooke Queenan missed two 3-point attempts and Amber Jacobs one for BC. Ress closed the Eagles' scoring with a layup.
The top scorers for both teams were quiet as Jacobs was held to 4 points on 1-for-7 shooting, and UConn's Diana Taurasi (4 of 13) didn't score the first of her 12 points until she hit a layup with 8:47 to go in the first half.
UConn's Barbara Turner, who had a team-high 19 points, was 11 of 11 from the line, while Strother and Jessica Moore joined Taurasi with 12 points.
"We came here to win, and were in a situation to do that," said Inglese. "But when it came to the end, we missed some opportunities that we needed to take advantage of on both the offensive end and the defensive end."
